Bert Stitt, President

“I can assure you that (Bert Stitt) is one of the best organizers and meeting facilitators I have ever met. He teaches you how to cut through the personalities of the group, come to consensus, make commitments, and accomplish goals. Remember he does this with a group of business people who are volunteering their time and have their own agendas.”

Lake Zurich, Illinois

Grassroots activists, community leaders, entrepreneurs and investors recognize Bert Stitt for his innovative approaches to integrating citizen involvement, public policy and private investment.

Bert's tried and true Interactive Srategic Planning (ISP) process ensures quality community involvement that increases project predictability and investment security. Using ISP, Bert guides participants in creating a shared vision in the early stages of major developments.

As President of the Center for Community Stewardship, Bert brings an intuitive understanding of deep democracy, citizen visioning, public engagement and intentional stewardship.

He practices the art and skill of facilitating community involvement, whether in the context of a city, village, neighborhood, town or region, as well as a company or nonprofit organization. He excels at helping groups direct change through an examination of shared values, shared vision and accountability.

Process, process, process
Bert emphasizes the need for a good process. “Suffice it to say, ‘If you do not have a good process, you cannot have a good product.’ I often use the metaphor of canning tomatoes. There are many steps in the process to having that nice dish of canned tomatoes on a winter’s day. It starts with the planting in the spring and ends with the beautiful cellar shelf in the fall. You must pay careful attention to every step. The steps are sequential, the steps are repeated often, and timing is essential.”

— Bert Stitt, Center for Community Stewardship

After more than 35 years of facilitation practice, Bert conceived of the Center for Community Stewardship as an institution for providing wider opportunities for grassroots involvement in public decision-making.

Bert provides services for community building, public engagement, strategic planning, visioning and mediation. He specializes in downtown revitalization, neighborhood planning, environmental initiatives, and organizational and small business development.

From 1979 to 1989, Bert served as the Downtown Development Coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Development (now the Department of Commerce). While there he developed the ISP process, which established a culture of community visioning throughout the state.

He helped to pass a state law that makes it possible for local communities to create business improvement districts in Wisconsin. As of 2004, 45 communities have established 70 such districts, with an aggregate budget of $10 million.

Bert also helped to establish Wisconsin's Main Street Program, which began in 1988. The program now serves 45 communities.

Bert's major projects include:

Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which has generated upward of $200 million in downtown development
Deer 2000, a major initiative of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources that engaged more than residents statewide to design a deer-herd management program
Milwaukee's Brady Street neighborhood, where Bert's early work as a neighborhood activist prepared the way for the area's renaissance

Bert is certified as a public participation practitioner by the International Association for Public Participation. He is certified in land-use mediation by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and holds senior facilitation certification from Interaction Associates of San Francisco, California. Bert received his bachelor of liberal arts degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.